


Crack Shot

by cygnaut



Series: The Devil's Resting Place [1]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Beginnings, Furiosa backstory, Furiosa is not a war boy, Gen, Pre-Canon, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 22:52:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6878125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cygnaut/pseuds/cygnaut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ace has seen the girl before. She's often outside in the early morning hours clambering among the rocks at the base of the Citadel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crack Shot

Ace's new role as Imperator Scourge's second means that he's in charge of training new recruits for the pursuit crew.

He usually enjoys teaching, but the latest batch of rookies are trying his patience. Most of them are newly painted War Boys who took their vows less than twenty days ago. They're all convinced that they're hotshots on the fast track to Valhalla. Ace soon tires of their boasting and after a few days of drills he decides to tap the brakes.

He takes the recruits out for target practice early in the morning when they're still groggy and half awake. After going over the basics of loading the various rifles, Ace has them start practicing. The first shots break the predawn silence and scatter the lizards sunning on the rocks in front of the Citadel.  

None of the War Boys have fired a long gun before and they don't show any aptitude for it. Scourge selects War Boys based on their driving skills, but his crew still needs to know how to shoot. Ace believes that a good War Boy should have the ability to take on any role needed in battle. True service to the Immortan is about more than just manic devotion; it's about skill.  
  
Ace walks up and down the line of War Boys watching as they practice and offering guidance here and there. He can already sense frustration building as the recruits realize that they can't rage their way into being a crack shot. The more tense and frustrated they get, the worst their aim becomes.  
  
As he's pacing, Ace notices a kitchen worker observing them from a nearby overhanging cliff. She's perched on a ledge that projects out next to the smoke holes for the kitchens. Ace assumes she must have climbed down from there, sneaking out from a work shift.

Her ragged dress looks like it was white once, but now it's stained with sweat and smoke from the kitchens. She's a healthy-looking thing, nearly as tall as Ace, but thin like she had a recent growth spurt without putting on any extra weight. There must be something wrong with her that she hasn't been claimed as a breeder or one of the Immortan’s own wives.  
  
Ace has seen the girl before. She's often outside in the early morning hours clambering among the rocks at the base of the Citadel. Guard shifts are long and dull, and the people you see repeatedly tend to stick in your head. Ace remembers once he watched her throw a rock and stun a lizard from ten meters away. He wonders if that accuracy extends to shooting.  
  
"Want to try?" Ace shouts, cupping his hands around his mouth and calling up to the girl. She startles and the War Boys behind Ace turn and laugh. Several of them offer up rude observations about other things they'd like to see her try.  
  
Ace smiles at the girl, trying to reassure her that he was being sincere. He unhooks a bag of ammo from his belt and tosses it in her direction. It lands in the sand below her with a thump and she backs away from the ledge. Ace sets an Enfield rifles down on the ground and motions to it, inviting her to come pick it up if she wants. He smiles at her again and she hovers indecisively while the War Boys snicker.  
  
Ace turns his attention back to his motley group of trainees. "Keep shooting, crew! I don't care if we're here until the sun sets, we aren't leaving until _all_ of you can hit a target dead center."  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, Ace sees the girl climb down from the ledge and walk cautiously up to the bag of ammo. She darts glances at the War Boys as she opens the bag, but they're too busy taking the piss out of one another to notice.  
  
The girl emptied out the ammo and sorts through the bullets, arranging them in piles on the ground. She picks out several cartridges and walks to where Ace left the rifle. He's pleased when she opens the bolt and loads four rounds like she's done it all her life. He suspected she had the knowing and he was right.  
  
Ace turns to watch as the girl stands and puts the rifle against her shoulder. She looks down the sights and takes aim at a distant target. Ace doesn't think there's any danger of her clipping one of the War Boys by accident, but he prepares himself in case she decides to get revenge on them for laughing at her earlier.  
  
The War Boys notice what's happening when one of them points and shouts, "Kitchen wench thinks she's a sniper!"  
  
The girl takes no notice of their hooting and hollering, standing still as she stares down the sights. She doesn't let the War Boys distract her or rush her into shooting before she's ready. She takes so long aiming that they start to get bored and begin chattering amongst themselves. Ace watches as she lets out a long, slow breath, her shoulders relaxed and perfectly at ease as she pulls the trigger.  
  
She misses the target by more than ten meters.  
  
One of the War Boys shouts "mediocre!" and they break out into raucous laughter. The girl pays them no mind. She palms the bolt with a smooth twist of her hand, flips the safety on, and lowers the rifle to the ground, pausing only to pick up the spent cartridge. Without even looking at Ace, she walks out into the target range, following the path of her bullet.  
  
"Barrels down!" Ace shouts, hitting several War Boys in the back of the head when they don't lower their rifles fast enough. Ace isn't sure what she's up to, but he doesn't want the headache of getting a full-life worker killed. She didn't seem kamicrazy to Ace, but maybe she has a death wish.  
  
It's a long walk, but the girl doesn't rush. She continues past the targets, calm as a desert breeze, and picks something up from the ground. The War Boys keep laughing at first, but gradually fall silent as they realize something unexpected has happened. The girl is too far away for Ace to see what she picked up, but she raises the thing to her mouth and tears at it with her teeth.  
  
The girl returns as serenely as she left and comes up to Ace with her mouth bloody. In her hand is a lizard, its head blown clean off by her rifle shot. Ace laughs and claps his hands while the War Boys stare in silence. The girl tosses the spent cartridge to Ace and walks back to the walls of the Citadel. She climbs up the cliffside without a backward glance.  
  
"Well?" Ace says, looking around at the slack-jawed recruits. "I don't hear any firing and I _know_ none of you pedestrians could hit a lizard from five hundred meters."  
  
The spell is broken and the War Boys raise their rifles to shoot. They're considerably more sober than they were earlier.

Ace smiles to himself and makes a note to mention the girl to the Prime Imperator. A crack shot like that is being wasted in the kitchens. She should be on a sniper team, if not in training as an Imperator's aide.


End file.
